The Marketing Mixisalso known as the 4 P’s, can be used by marketers as a tool to assist in implementing the Marketing strategy. This method is used to generate the optimal response in the target market by blending 4variables in an optimal way. These fourP’s controllable variables. These 4p’s are adjusted on a frequent basis to meet the changing needs of the target group and the other dynamics of the Marketing environment.

Product: A product is customer solutions and firms must define the characteristics of product or service that meet the needs of customers

Price: It is the amount the customers willing to pay for the product. And firms must be conscious in deciding the price of the product as customers are very sensible to it.

Place: Making the product available at right time, right place in right quantities.

Promotion: Its all about how chosen target markets are informed about organizations products and services and inclues tools like advertising, sales promotion, publicity, public relations and direct marketing

Expanded Marketing Mix

The 7-Ps model is more useful for services industries and also for knowledge-intensive environments.

5. People: All people directly or indirectly involved in the consumption of a service are an important part of the extended marketing mix. Knowledge Workers, Employees, Management and other Consumers often add significant value to the total product or service offering.

6. Process: Procedure, mechanisms and flow of activities by which services are consumed (customer management processes) are an essential element of the marketing strategy.

7. Physical Evidence: The ability and environment in which the service is delivered, both tangible goods that help to communicate and perform the service and intangible experience of existing customers and the ability of the business to relay that customer satisfaction to potential customers.

PHILOSOPHIES OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT:

What philosophies should guide the marketing efforts. There six alternative concepts under which organization carryout their marketing strategies.

Production Concept: The concept is of the idea that consumers will favor those products which are widely available and highly affordable. Therefore, management should focus on production and distribution efficiency.

Product Concept: The product concept hold that consumer will favor a product that offers Most quality, performance and innovative feature. So under this, marketing strategy focuses on product improvement through design, packaging and price.

Selling Concept: The concepts hold that consumers will not buy the products unless aggressive marketing efforts are pursued. This concept is mainly applicable incase of unsought goods (like insurance).

Marketing Concept: The concept holds that achieving goals depends o knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfaction better than competitors. The concept mainly focuses on customer.

Societal Marketing: The social marketing concept holds that marketing strategy should deliver value to customers in a way that maintains or improves the customer’s and society well-being.

MARKETING TASKS: (OR) TASKS OF MARKETING

Developing marketing plan and strategies: The first step is to identify the long run opportunities and core competencies for the company, thereby marketer designs marketing plans and strategy and move forwards.

Capturing marketing insights: Every company needs reliable marketing information to understand what is happening inside and outside the company.(marketing environment). MIS also includes marketing research which assess buyer wants and behaviour, actual and potential market size.

Connecting with customers:Marketing must consider how to create best value for its products/services for chosen target markets and develop, strong profitable, long run relationship with customers.

Building strong brands: Every company must understand the strength and weakness of the brands withcustomers.Companies must initiate new product development based on their product positioning that helps build strong brands. At the same time they mustthink about life cycle stages and competition and other activities.

Shape Market offerings: Firms offers variety of products to cater the needs of customers. And product is the heart for any marketing program thatincludes product quality, design, features, packaging and also provides support services which gives competitive advantage over the competition. Pricing is the one of the critical decision, and it must based on their product perceived value.

Delivering value: Every company must properly deliver value embodied in products through careful identification and selection of channel intermediaries who performs channel activities. It must also understand the various types of middleman like retailers, wholesalers and physical distribution firms and how they make decisions.

Communication value: Firms need to communicate the value in products/services. Marketing communication are the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade and remind customers directly or indirectly about the products or brands. One can opt for mass communication or personal communication channels or integrated communication.

Creating long-term profits: Another important task of marketing is to have long-term view of its products and profitability. Companies must continuously search for opportunities and develop new products to meet the changing needs of consumers

MARKETING ENVIRONMENT

A company’s marketing environment consists of the factors and forces outside marketing that affect the marketing management ability to develop and maintain successful transactions with its target customers(Kotler & Armstrong ).

Marketing Environment is composed of a micro environment and macroenvironment. The Microenvironment consists of the following factors close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers.

Microenvironment:

1)The company

2)Suppliers

3)Marketing intermediaries

4)Customer

5)Competitors

6)Publics

Company: Marketing mangers while formulating the marketing program and plans must consider other groups such top management, R&D, production and purchasing and accounting and think about consumers and work in harmony

Suppliers: Suppliers are very important in value delivering system who provides resources for the company to achieve its goals. Any change in the suppliers environment such as price change, labour strike, supply shortage can impact marketing operations seriously.

Marketing intermediaries: Marketing intermediaries are the firms engaged in selling and distributing the goods/services to end users. These include middlemen, physical distribution firms, marketing service agencies, and financial intermediaries. Middlemen include retailers, wholesales, dealers, and agents

Customers: The organization must know customers needs and wants, what they require and their characteristics. Customers may come from consumer market, business, resellers, and government markets.

Competitors: Marketing must try to gain strategic advantage over its competitors through proper positioning of their offer in the consumer minds. While designing and implementing marketing strategies, one has to track the competitors activities and strategies.

Publics: The company’s marketing environment includes various groups such financial, media government, citizen, and general public.

Macroenvironment:

Economic Environment: Marketer requires to study the buying power of people. Changes in income and spending pattern would influence marketing environment. So marketer has to study income levels and distribution.

Political Factor: Most of marketing decisions are strongly affected by development in the political environment. This environment includes government agencies and other pressure groups that influence organizations.

Cultural Factors: The cultural environment is made of up institutions and other forces that affect society’s basic values, perceptions, preferences and behavior. Marketer must focus on the cultural shifts.

Technological Factors: The major impact on the society is the technological advancement and changes in product that effect on consumers. Technology will be advanced further and consumer demands better and sophisticated product and services. These factors effect the company and consumers.

Deomographic Environment: Demography means the study of human population in terms of age, sex, occupation, income and other statistics. Any change in demographic environment would impact business organizations. So, marketing manager has to identify the changes in these factors that would affect businesses.

GLOBAL MARKETING

A Global Firm is one that, in operating in more than one country, captures R&D, production, logistical, marketing and financial advantages in its costs and reputation that are not available to purely domestic competitors. Global firms plan, operate and coordinate their activities on a world wide basis.

Each national market has unique features that must be grasped. A global firm has to take into account economic, political – legal and cultural factors of target country while planning its expansion programmes.

Economic Environment:

Three characteristics reflect a country’s attractiveness as an export market.

Size of country’s population: Large countries are more attractive to exporters than small markets.

Country’s industrial structures, four types of industrial structures can be distinguished: -

Subsistence Economics: - In Subsistence economics the vast majority of people engage in simple agriculture. They consume most of their output and barter the rest for simple goods and services. They offer few opportunities for exporters.

Raw Material Exporting Economics: - These economics are rich in one or more natural recourses but poor in other respects. Much of their revenue comes from exporting these resources Examples are Chile (tin and copper); Zaire (rubber). These countries are good markets for extracting equipment, tools and supplies, materials handling equipment and trucks. Depending on the number of foreign residents and wealthy native rulers and landlords, they are also a market for western – style commodities and luxury goods.

Industrializing Economies: - In an industrializing economy, manufacturing begins to account for between 10 and 20 percent of the country’s grogs national product. Examples include India, Egypt etc. As manufacturing increases, the country relies more on imports of textile raw materials, steel and heavy machinery and less on imports of finished textiles, papers products and automobiles. The industrialization creates a new rich class and small but growing middle class, both demanding new types of goods, some of which can be satisfied only by imports.

Industrial Economies: - Industrial economies are major exporters of manufactured goods and investment founds. They trade manufactured goods among themselves and also export them to other type of economies in exchange of raw materials and semi-finished goods. The large and varied manufacturing activities of these industrial nations and their sizable middle class make them rich markets for all sorts of goods.

Economic characteristics of the country: characters like income distribution. Income distribution is related to a country’s industrial structure but is also offered by the political system.

Political – Legal Environment

A company should consider four factors in deciding whether to do business in a particular country.

Attitude towards International Buying: - Some nations are very receptive, indeed encouraging to foreign firms and others are very protectionist. For example, Mexico for a number of years has been attracting foreign investment by offering investment incentives, while India in the post required the exporter to cope with import quotes, blocked currencies and so on.

Political Stability: - Government in some countries changes hands, sometimes quite violently. And with changes in government foreign trade policies also change. The foreign company’s property might be expropriated, or its currency holdings might be blocked. In such conditions international marketers might prefer export marketing to direct foreign investment. They will convert their currency rapidly. As a result, the people in the host country pay higher prices, have fewer jobs and get less satisfactory products.

Monetary Regulation: - Sellers want to realize profits in a currency of value to them. Foreign firms want payments in hand currency with profit repatriation rights, but that may not be available in many markets.

Government Bureaucracy: - A fourth factor is the extent to which the host government runs an efficient system for assisting foreign companies: quick licensing procedures, efficient custom handling adequate market information and other factors conductive to doing business.

Cultural Environment: - Each nation has its own values, customs and taboos. Foreign business people, if they are to be effective, must drop their ethnocentrism and try to understand the culture and business practices of their hosts, who often out on different concepts of time, space and etiquette. The way foreign consumers perceive and use certain products must be checked out by the seller before planning the marketing programme.